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Lift’s Big Line Test – 7/22/26
I redid some of the Jpg popouts as per your excellent feedback yesterday, but don’t have it ready to upload yet so instead I bring to you Lift’s Big Line Test from this morning.
Conditions were great (and probably as good as they will get for a while) –
Low 60s, dry grass, green AQI.
Wasn’t able to get the line going to the right (dog on left) like the Fusion Snooker course crashes, but did manage to fit a close approximation going to the left that started with a curved tunnel around the corner (in our usual potty area). Distances were 18ft from tunnel to Jump 1 and Jump 1 to 2. 21 ft jump 2 to 3. 18ft jump 3 to 4. The longer distance 2 to 3 is what the July Fusion course had. In that one she chipped in slightly to jump #2 and then tried to leave out a stride before jump 3 (a double whammy of landing short and having the longer distance).Kaladin volutneered as white dog to make sure my videographer had practice and that his vantage point was good to not have me block the dog.
Kaladin gives 4 paws up to an easy line at 8in and had some lovely striding (2 each) down the line.Lift ran it twice.
#1) – Simulating the trial experience, I stayed connected but took off down the line when she was in the tunnel. She took 3 strides out of the tunnel and got a bit close to the jump, but then tried to do the next distance (same 18ft) in 2 strides which didnt’ go well (don’t worry – she seems fine).#2) – Stayed back a bit so that I was only slightly ahead as she exited the tunnel and then let her blast by me down the line. This time she did 3 strides for each distance. The longer distance looked lovely with 3. Jumps 1 to 2 you can see in the slow mo that she dips her head as if she is worrying about that jump biting her again.
So I think that Fusion footing could play a part, but that it’s exacerbating a deeper issue of her not handling high arousal and a straight ahead “easy” line well all the time.
Let me know if there’s another variation you would like me to try before I take this down (get the tunnel out of the potty yard) and set something else up.
Games 3 Jumping Popouts – 7/19/26
We ended up canceling the outdoor UKI Trial. Between the heat (high 80s/low 90s and muggy) and the uncertainty over the air quality, it just wasn’t worth it. And it turned out to be the right decision since it stayed out and the AQI did get a lot worse today (was actually yellow yesterday and we were feeling like we had over-reacted) but went into orange and red today which made us feel a lot better again.
So, I suddenly had a free weekend to train dogs! Did the Jpg popouts with 6 poles so that they could fit without the oak tree being an added layering challenge. And managed to slip these in while it was still in the low 80s and before the Air Quality deteriorated.
Kaladin
The first 2 went so well, we went ahead and did the 3rd one with the weaves too. Got lost on it (lack of caffeine & breakfast hit). Then we got it back on track and did and alternate plan for #5 too. I had the purple lattice jump too close to the oak tree for a right wrap on #6 so that wasn’t an option – although I liked the left wrap on 6 for getting a nice line 7 to 8.
Lift
These weaves were a bit above her pay grade – I think I’d done a flip away (switch) maybe once or twice with her months ago. And the entry off the layered jump was also new. Then the lack of caffeine and breakfast definitely caught up to me and I mixed up which course we were running.
Kaladin & Lift – Novel Exciting – 7/16/26
Air Quality is getting a bit better but we were still in Purple (very unhealthy) or maroon (hazardous) for most of today. So I did a short sesion with the 2 of the this morning inside with a Novel -slightly exciting item (Murdo, the 2ft tall Highland Cow Stuffie my nephew picked out as a Christmas present for the dogs). Both dogs were pretty snappy with lining up and releasing and the resting dog stayed put on the cot just outside the training area (and around the corner a bit so they couldn’t stare at Murdo on the other side of the room). Decided a little more brain work would be good after some indoor play sessions so here’s this evening’s sesion with a closed bag of rabbit ears on the ground. Both dogs self-released off the cot when I was releasing the other dog. (Lift was better since her “stay on the cot until I look at you and release you” behavior is stronger). I did notice that Lift flicked her eyes at the rabbit ears around 1:50-2 and again around 2:10 when I was removing Kaladin from her session.
We went over 100 for a heat index earlier this week but now they are talking about “a cold front” which might drop it into the high 80s for the weekend…
Thanks for the great feedback.
We’ve got an Air Quality Index of 290 now and it supposed to be over 300 (the maroon “hazardous” range) tomorrow so no training outside tomorrow for sure. Hopefully they’re right and it will drop back down into orange (unhealthy for those with sensitivities) on Friay and get better for the weekend.Julie
Games 2 – Double Whammy 1&3 – 7/14/26
Kaladin –
Seq 3 – I didnt’ think the backslide slide/blinds would work well based on the angles I had set up but I really liked them for the opening.Seq 1 – Took the shorter route to start over and bumped him out a little bit to make sure he was jumping #1 again angled to the left and not into the shed.
Lift
Seq 3 – She clearly thougth I was in her way when I did the backside slice/blinds -so much for trying to shape the hairpin turn a bit from 7-9.Seq 1 -Threadle slices definitely need more work. She isn’t confident about coming in and I’m not sure she will so we’re both twitchy and then she often just throws up her paws and takes the obvious side of the jump.
I also did a NN session asking them to do tricks inside last night using my Breyer horse (Phar Lap) propped against Kaladin’s US Open Trophy. Neither one deigned to notice the distraction.
Games 2 – Double Whammy – 7/12/26
We went out to Brooke Benjamin’s farm yesterday for a fun run in her awesome new agility field. (Tucker gets bonus points for grass care that rivals golf courses!) It was really hot even in the morning so I am really glad I had already decided to not enter Lift in the Animal Inn (outdoors on grass) trial next weekend and will probably scratch some runs for Kaladin. Lift got to do some short sequences, got on a new teeter and she did 12 weave poles!I decided to train them this morning because it’s only getting hotter this week and I have a brewing crisis at work to deal wiht so everyone will take tomorrow off for sure and then Kaladin has class at Fusion on Tuesday. And yes, the jumps are a bit different since Dean decided to mow yesterday. (it was needed so that we wouldn’t lose Lift!)
Lift – Single Whammy -Sequence #3 – a bit ad-libbed
Way late on the threadle at 5 and I think my shoulders were pointed to the front of the jump (whoops). So we kept going but ended up taking the whole next line backwards so eventually I threw the toy and gave up. Got some commentary on the next #5 threadle wrap attempt but she did it. And as I was going to 8 I was thinking “you should be more connected with her” and right on cue the kangaroo comes out. LOL.
Then had the “bright idea” to try a lap turn on 8 but was late and can see on the video that I got impatient and tried to run her back to the jump before she got close enough so she was still on the slice line.Kaladin – Double whammy – Seq 1 & 3
Did much better with Kaladin. Sequence 3 went pretty well so we took a short break in the shade and then knocked out #1.
On #3 – I thought the lead out to a blind and threadle slice would be good for him at the opening but I waited too long to move forward so he had a valid question on whether we were really going to 3.
On #1 – For the continuation of 9 back to 1, I thought about doing a turn on the flat to take 1 wrapping back to the left, but decided to wrap to the right since that kept him in extension longer going back to 1 (also the shed and shrubs were a bit close to the landing on 1!). I decided it was too hot to try it the other way for timing purposes.
For Lift & her cape moments – in both cases it is a long extension line of tunnel to jumps with jumps at varying distances. The first time she did this it was at Fusion and was almost the same finish of tunnel and 3 jumps but with a bit less curve (interestingly it was also a Courtney Moore Snkr closing last August). Last August, you can see me connected to her and then I flick my eyes forward at about the time that she is deciding to leave out a stride and then I’m looking at her again as she is taking off too far away. Last weekend the first 2 jumps were a bit closer together and then the 3rd was a larger distance. Tunnel to jump she takes 3 strides and is turning a bit to line up for the jump (she makes a good decision to add the 3rd stride). Jump 1 to 2 she is accelerating and also does 3 strides but she has to shorten the 3rd stride a bit to fit it in (not quite a chip, but it’s definitely shorter). So then she lands a bit closer to jump 2 than if she had been in full extension and jump 2 to 3 is a longer distance. She takes 2 strides and then takes off way too far from jump 3. I looked back at her runs at OTR (not very many) and none of the courses had the same kind of line that allowed for that much extension and also had a varying jump distance so no good data point there. One of the Classic SS ones did have a line of jumps out but it started with a send and wrap on a jump which didn’t allow for as much extension as coming out of tunnel pointed at the jumps. Also on that one she was trying to come into me at the last jump so I was really connected to push her out and she added a stride before the last jump because of that. I wish I the video had been more zoomed out for Fusion last weekend. In my mind I was telling myself to stay connected and support her on this big exciting line but video proof would be better to ensure it wasn’t me sprinting to the finish and loosing a bit of connection. It probably won’t happen this week when it’s supposed to be in the 90s all week, but I think I can fit in a similiar tunnel to jumps line in my yard if I go diagonally across the yard. I want to see how she does that on grass starting with me moving less and building up to sprinting with her.
Games 2 – Single & Double Whammy – 7/9/26
Did sequence 2 this morning because it looked like the most Lift-friendly.
Lift
My plan was a one and done and not to try the double whammy. Ended up re-trying a few spots but generally happy with it.
Kaladin
Realized as I was walking out to the start line that I had forgotten to reset jumps, but decided it was too much effort to move them. (This was before breakfast or caffeine!). He did a very nice double whammy one and done. I handled 5 differently the 2nd time just for variety. I think I like running into the BC better for him.
Yes – definitely a good challenge to cue tunnel while dogs are still weaving. Kaladin needs work on that too.
Kaladin was his usual brilliant self at Fusion last weekend. I posted his Masters series runs on FB – My favorite was Masters Jumping where I planned & sucessfully executed 4 layers including a bit of a gratuitous one at the end (he did roll his eyes at me for that one). We also pulled off a 51pt snooker run where 7 was 3 jumps.
Lift achieved her primary goal for the weekend which was to get a measurement that kept her in the 8in class so yay! I think she heard your stand short thoughts because Courtney got her at 3/8in lower than her temp measurement 17mo ago! She went from 12.75 to 12- 3/8! So Courtney is on my list of judges that I want measuring my borderline dogs. I left Lift at home on Saturday and Dean dropped her by at the end of the day to get measured when things were quieter during the walk before the last class. She was actually really good about the measuring even with people around and was standing relaxed and square.
I did run her NFC in Snooker on Sunday because I had a course I wanted to try but didnt’ want to be whistled off if it went sideways. Good thing too as Lift did throw in a bonus jump om the way to the closing (her hooman may have not had a strong enough connection to snooker her past that enticing jump). Closing was tunnel at the top of the ring and 4 jumps out in a gentle arc. First 2 jumps were lovely and then she put on a cape and decided to leave out a stride before jump 3 (when there was room for an additional extended stride). That went badly and the bar went flying and sent her a** over teakettle. She ended up back on all 4 feet and spitting mad. Since she wasn’t on 3 legs, I did take her back and we finished out the last 3 jumps with 3 strides between jumps. In good news, she seems to be fine. Movement is normal & the massage therapist worked out a bit of tightness in a few spots but didnt’ find any trigger points. We took it easy for a few days and did some Assisi Looping and gentle stretching. The session this morning was the first thing she’s done agility-wise since Sunday. It was the same fast line finish that tripped her up (literally) a while back. I was sure I was staying connected and I can see my head turned towards her as we start down the line, but then the video is zoomed in too far (videographer was right by the last line) to see my upper body when she decided she should leave out that 3rd stride. So I don’t have confirmation that I actually was connected when this happened. I suspect that the stress of both a thunderstorm and some fireworks the night before (the 4th) didn’t help her store of brain juice so in retrospect maybe I shouldn’t have run her at all (I did scratch her Jpg run thinking that 2 would be a stretch on July 5th). She is entered in 1 half day session with you at Dawn’s in August, but my plan is to skip the next 2 UKI trials (next weekend and end of August). By then she’ll have been on the new dose for long enough to know if it is helping or not. If it’s not helping or she’s getting worse, I may leave her at home and let Kaladin take her seminar spot if Dawn doesn’t have a waitlist. We’ll see.
Lift – Games 2- Jpg 1 modified – 7/3/26
Lift got her turn on the modified Jpg 1 course this morning. This was after her before-breakfast walk and when she was a bit hangry. I was really impressed with her nailing it given all that. (well – and in general!)
I had thought about going in for the FC/BC between jump & tunnel for Kaladin but was worried I wouldn’t have enough forward momentum to send out to the weaves or that I’d step in too much and pull him towards the jump when I had to step back to go around it. With Lift I knew a FC/BC would be late so didn’t try it. Pausing as she entered and then moving forward worked well to layer the jump to the tunnel.
She gets to laze around at home tomorrow while Kaladin and I are at the Fusion UKI trial. She’s entered on Sunday mainly so that I can get a permanent measurement (ideally at 12.75in exactly) from Courtney Moore. I am not sure if she is actually going to run on Sunday or not. (maybe NFC for Snooker?) We just doubled her meds so I’m not sure how she will handle that. She had started on a half dose so now she’s at the lower full dose 2x/day as opposed to the half dose 1x/day (I’m getting better at quartering those tiny tablets). So we’ll be back sometime next week with some Jpg popouts and the Double Whammy game. Also another NN game I think. I need to find more NN items. I was going to use her cot folded and standing upright but didn’t want her to think that was something to wrap.
I don’t think I can attach a photo here so I’ll message you the cows. They are just adorable. Present from my sister. They are solar and light up at night.
Under Pressure – NN – Jump Backside – 7/2/26
Got Dean to place the NN object (a towel at first and then he voted for subbing in the 3 stacked highland cows statue)
Lift – I carried her to the start mostly to make sure she wasn;t watching Dean place the object. Towel was very neutral for her. She also still did her backsides with the highland cows. She started to check them out after her reward but then turned off of them and ran to me when I cued her leash!
Kaladin
Wasn’t going to do this with him but decided to try it and he completely fell for the highland cows the first time!
Kaladin – Games 2 – Jpg 1 modified
Did a one and done for a modification of the top left part of Jpg 1 (2-10, turned 12 into a front-side wrap (too close to the tree for the backside on his line) then 15)
With the 6 weave poles the jump layer was harder and he started to come into the jump as he was exited the weaves before pushing back out to the tunnel.
It was in the low 80s so he wasn’t super speedy. I’ve been doing short recall/frizzer sessions with both dogs during the middle of the day as opposed to only training in the early morning or late evening. We have an outdoor UKI trial in 2 weeks and I thought some acclimation work would be a good idea.
LOL- Coats on the whippets in the 80s. Kaladin thinks it’s time to melt if it gets above 80. In his defense, he does have a lot of black fur.
Lift & Kaladin – Jumping Popoouts – 6/25/26
These were from Thursday evening where I trained both dogs thinking that Lift’s class had been cancelled only to find out after I was done and eating dinner that I had my weeks mixed up and it really wasn’t a skip week. Whoops! Well the dogs got some good training and I apologized to Christina for missing class.
Kaladin
I did a larger pop-out from the Jpg course were I replaced #2 tunnel with a jump and removed #12 (since it would have been on my deck). At 0:56 I proved that Kaladin’s threadle slice cue (Come) is stronger than me thinking I was cueing the threadle wrap. Whoops!.
Then I did Jpg popout #3 after a short break. Late weave cue on the first try and then I was thinking too much about cueing the weaves the next time and didn’t support the jump layer first.
Lift
I decided she could try the larger pop-out too but not silently. I think this was her first threadle wrap attempt after weaves. And I was reminded that threadle slices still need a lot of work.
Looks like your forecast for next week is a bit worse than ours. I am so glad that next weekend I”ll be at the air-conditioned Fusion UKI trial and not an outdoor one.
Lift – silent Jpg popouts – 6/23/26
Well that actually went a bit better than I thought it would! LOL. I mean it was hard and she got a bit confused but it was very interesting. In case you couldn’t tell -that was popout #1 at first and then switching to Popout 3 but adding in the extra jump before the weaves to give her an entry she could do. I finally realized that a bit of decel and more connection would get the jump she had run around before but then held onto it too long and got her commentary on the push to the backside following it. We’re done now and before this afternoon’s predicted rain – back to work for me
Lift – Jpg Popout – 6/22/26
Modified the Jpg pop-out to use 6 weaves. Tried to balance keeping jumps relatively in the same spot in relation to the weaves while not scrunching up the distances too much.
Plan was to do popout #1 first – She nailed it – I forgot to handle 6 & 7. Then decided to try to add 6 & 7 in and got some variations including her jumping over the edge of the bottom step of our deck. I also clearly need to practice actually pointing her more in the correct direction before taking her leash off (LOL). When she’s out of camera range around 1:10 that was when I tossed a treat and then waited for her to pick a position (she sat) before we tried again. Took a short break and did a modified popout #4 that did 1-3 and then 8-11. Her weaves are stronger on the off-side so I was really happy she nailed them here.
Lift & line-up between legs – I played around with her weaving between my legs some, but didn’t pursue it with agility line-ups much because 1) it wasn’t strong enough for her to want to come in that close when she was too aroused and 2) as she started scanning for movement more, I didn’t want to push her on taking the leash off sooner and I knew I’d get hopelessly tangled up with her, leash and my legs if I left it on for her to weave between my legs.
Kaladin has class tomorrow night so he got to play with his frizzer a bit instead. I have plans to try some modifications of the pop-outs adding in some other obtacles with him later in the week. I started to set an extra jump and a tunnel and then decided they weren’t setting Lift up for success so pushed the jump into the shrubs and turned down the tunnel opening for her.
LOL! I knew I’d get a great history recap with that question! I have an occasional “rent-a-Beardie” that goes surprisingly well considering his handler is into OMD….probably because I can set his line with motion and stay mostly with/ahead of him.
We took today off agility training and just did recalls (aka sprint drills) and played with frizzers. My throws aren’t great but they are typically good enough when I keep them low with the soft frizzers so that I don’t worry about him splatting.
Kaladin does manage arousal well at the start, but there are times that he is a bit sticky about offering the sit so I’ll keep experimenting with the choose your own stay.
Startline mechanics with Lift are definitely still a WIP. She doesn’t always keep her orientation as the leash comes off (Depends on if she is in a spin or shake mood post-leash). Sometimes I’ve used the spin as a way to change her line up direction a bit and to let her blow off steam.
Kaladin- Games 1 – Layering- 6/20/26
Looking at him worked like a charm. Why do so many people tell you to look at the dog’s line though?
And not staying connected and doing a late blind gets you an extra oak tree layer. LOL!
Tried the “choose your own stay position” thing with him and he did pick a stand for a rep.
I’m not sure if I like how he plays with the Wild Ring when I throw it. He likes it, but I feel like the unexpected bounces when I roll it sometimes cause him to overrun it and I don’t like the impact on his front end as he’s trying to chase it down. Same thing happens if I toss it like a frisbie because it drops to the ground faster as opposed to floating along for him to catch. He hasn’t done it yet, but I’m also wondering if he could get his foot through it by accident as he is grabbing for it.
Lift – Stay – 6/20/26
Yeah – I was thinking 2x/week, maybe 3 super short sessions was probably going to be plenty for the under pressure games with Ms Lifty. I did the 2nd session 2 days later because I didn’t want to forget about trying the sit stays with her leash too. The 2nd session was in the evening right before dinner (which was late because I was wrapping things up at work) so she was pretty amped going into it and a bit high coming back into the house which rolled right into being excited about dinner. I think more of the arousal was at the anticipation of dinner though and after dinner she settled down again. Friday I had Fusion rented so we did some mat work for her RDW which has been easy for her so far. (Kaladin finds it boring which is what he did the first time around too). I was going to play around with the choose your own stay position with a toy inside, but it was so perfect outside (high of 70ish) so we tried it outside with food. Whaddya know, the time she picked a stand she didnt’ budge and I really haven’t trained a stand stay with her.
Yes – At 15.75in he’s on the smaller side for 16reg/12s. We were 2nd to Carly & Jonah in SS – another smaller dog but such an amazing team so I always feel good if we’re within striking distance of their clean runs.
Here’s his Biathlon Jumping run (run 7 of 8 for the Cup) with our threadle wrap. It wasn’t completely independent since I rotated around into a blind to help him a bit which didn’t get me far enough ahead to smooth out the next line but I made it work with only a moderate squeak on my part at the next blind. But I was so happy with his speed into the threadle and how he didn’t question turning off the front of the jump #7 and also didnt’ slow way down with steam coming out of his ears.
Lift
With Dean it’s usually his movement or a change in movement. With Demi it’s either her trying to get Demi to react to her when Demi is calmly ignoring her or it’s going through doorways like coming in from outside. We’re making progress with Demi with a combination of management and training since it’s more predictable on when she will react so I’m prepared for it.And yes – I wanted to rule out GI issues first because I thought they were likely a contributing factor on top of making it really hard to use food to train her. That’s a good suggestion about Dr Kathy Murphy. The current plan is to start out with our regular vet because that was the quickest way to start her on something. If it doesn’t go well or seem to have much improvement I’ll probably be looking to consult with a vet behaviorist next.
Lift & Kaladin – Games 1 – Layering – 6/17/26
Tried 1 short session with each dog yesterday and each got rewarded when I didn’t set their line well or support it so they blasted through the tunnel. LOL.
Lift
After the tunnel on the first rep, I did a better job waiting for her to commit to 3 before turning to run the parallel line and she did a lovely job finding the jumps.Kaladin
Ran him at 8in because 1) we’re taking it easy after the Cup and 2) I was too lazy to change the jumps after Lift. I can tell the layering practice is working. He actually hunted for the 3rd jump in the first rep without me curving my line. Then I didn’t let him drive ahead on the 2nd rep so got stuck with no where to go at jump 2 and my sudden turn certainly contributed to the tunnel.
Lift – “10 tunnels” – sit stay plus leash – 6/18/26
Also did another short session with Lift earlier tonight and worked on amping her up more plus added in the leash routine. Managed to get a better camera angle too. Stays are still solid. Good about running to her leash. (it’s a “run with me to the leash and then wait for me to pick it up so she can poke her head towards the loop” kind of cue). The sit on the 2nd rep was still pretty snappy but she had comments about it. That was also after the 10 tunnels (or however many it was) where I got her high enough that she dropped a bar on a jump wrap.I haven’t trained a stay that is for a position the dog chooses. I also haven’t done much with a stand which I think might be something she would choose over a sit. Pretty sure she won’t flop down into a down if she doesn’t want to sit because that’s just weird (Sorry, Larry!). I’ll have to work on that separately. Did you train that with a prop like a Cato? Or is it that dog is moving around and you wait for a pause in a position and reward the pause? Then add “stay” cue later.
